Poems

Easter in the DarkWillow Creek held its breath that morning.The sun draped itself lazy across the sky,gold light pooling over lawns still damp with dew,and the children moved like bright water through it all—baskets swinging, laughter bubbling up,uncontained, unthinking. Cherry blossoms powdered the air with sweetness.A chocolate stand perfumed the corner of the street.It was […]

Curved Tracks Across The Winter Sky [Wreath]Every December there comes a night when the air feels tuned a little too sharply, like the whole sky got tightened a quarter turn and every star rings brighter against that stretched black skin overhead,When the snow in the gutter glows with a strange sort of smirk, reflecting more

Deck These Halls in Gasoline [Wraith]Christmas rolls up again on cracked tires and bald hope, the calendar drunk on red circles and fake holly bleeding across the month,Stores already played the carols since October and my nerves went threadbare somewhere between “silent night” and the fifteenth limited-time sale stunt,Bells from the church up the road

Crimson Claus and the Nightmares Ledger [Wraith]By the time December limps into its last, half-frozen week, the North Pole looks less like a wonder and more like a factory crime scene with better branding and worse ventilation,The elves work triple shifts under humming lights, eyes ringed like coal, wrists wrapped, shoulders locked in permanent indentation,Every

Crooked Cheer and Final Notices [Wreath]On the cheap beige wall of a rental that already looks tired in November,Holiday cards crouch in a crooked little flock, corners peeling where the tape gave up halfway through trying to be optimistic,Snowmen grinning with permanent marker teeth, cartoon reindeer winking like they know something about your browser history,Gold

Cracked Pastels and Hollow Hunts [Wraith]Out in the churchyard field behind the old brick chapel where the grass grows patchy and the stones lean like they’re tired of remembering names,The Sunday school crowd spills out with plastic baskets and squeals, chasing pastel bait tossed by adults who never notice how wrong the air feels, how

Cradle in the Coalstorm [Wraith]Hell does holidays, of course it does, it just does them wrong on purpose and then blames the guests,There is a schedule on a wall of flayed leather that says Nativity Reenactment followed by Torture of the Week and Mandatory Rest,I woke to that announcement like everyone else down here, sirens

Conspiracies Wrapped In Dollar Store Paper [Wreath]They passed out folded slips in the breakroom like contraband fortunes, coffee steaming, tinsel drooping from air vents that had only two settings which were meat locker or mild heatstroke,Names rattled in the plastic bowl once used for Halloween candy and leftover staff meeting muffins, the manager grinning way

Confetti and Cartridge Smoke [Wraith]The street is already sweating by late afternoon, sun bouncing off car hoods and low rooftops, puddles of light spreading under sagging strings of paper flags,Hand-painted signs in the taquería windows talk specials in crooked letters, green and red and proud, while the bar two doors down sells “Cinco shots” and

Confetti, HR, And Bad Decisions [Wreath]By the time the plastic tree had sagged into its corner and the fake snow clumped in sad little piles, the office had shed its daylight skin and put on something far less professional,The copier hummed like a bored accomplice, fairy lights flickered over spreadsheets taped to walls as makeshift